by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

"Here you are free to be yourself; you can work, do some art, read a book, play piano, get acquainted with good people, attend events, drink as much tea or coffee as you want - in other words, do whatever you like. Everything is free inside except the time you spend there."

Sold?

That's the pitch for Ziferblat, London's latest experiment in hip Britannia, a soon-to-be pay-per-minute cafe - right now it's relying on donations - in the capital's du jour Shoreditch neighborhood. The idea has recently been imported from Russia, and like the Russian Formalism art movement it at least partially conceptually resembles, Ziferblat has few unifying principles other than the meter's always running - at 3p a minute, about 5 cents - and the zaniness factor is off the scale.

Imagine if the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were coffee shop owners and you're somewhat on the way to understanding Ziferblat, which has ambitions to be a sanctuary for artists, musicians, techies and activists.

"The idea is that we all together, the people, rent this space, it's not just a funny way of making money," Ivan Meetin, the 29-year-old mustachioed and boyish-looking Moscow native behind the idea told USA TODAY. "We all pay for time all the time. I have to pay the rent each month, for example, but with Ziferblat all of us, including the customers, share the expenses."

Meetin said he hopes to foster an environment where people can recapture some of the informality of childhood. When USA TODAY dropped by unannounced over the weekend some of that ambition was apparently being fulfilled. Customers were washing their own dishes in the kitchen. Many were making their own coffee.

The comments for this story were collected in a closet-sized room strewn randomly with objects and papers that looked to have no immediate Ziferblat purpose: An oil painting of a lamb, an open cartoon of grape juice, some yellowing wrapping paper.

"Some people will see this as just a strange idea but those that admire the root idea will stay us" Meetin said. He had not heard of a restaurant that opened last year in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood that also caught the public imagination. Diners at EAT are not permitted to speak.

Ziferblat's London location is its first outside of Russia and Ukraine, where it has nine other branches.

Still, Londoners, never an easy sell, appear to be buying it. "We may only be a week into 2014, but this has to be a contender for best opening of the year," gushed Time Out London's review, under the headline: "The best things in life are 3p."

On Saturday, Ziferblat's modest second-floor space was heaving with the curious and seemingly do-it-yourself types.

"By opening Ziferblats around the world we will be creating a social network in real life," Meetin said.